Magic in Middle Earth
'MAGIC' In order to be able to use magic a character must have the Gifted trait The ruling skill of magic is a teached art, it cannot be spontaneously learned and it requires a language both spoken and written. The Elements of a spell are Target Number, Range, Effect , Words of Power, and Duration. 'Laws and Limits to Wizardry' Magic although powerful is far from omnipotent. There are certain natural edicts which it must conform and limits. Presented here is a concise list of the major laws and limits of Wizardry Magic that any Mage is unable to transgress. 'Edict of the Essence of Nature ' It is impossible to alter or determine something's essential nature. This concept encompasses the ability to halt or reverse natural aging, perceive the truth or falsehood of spirits, bring life to dead. 'Edict of Iluvatar' No wizardry can overcome the power of the Valars or the limit the effects of their powers. 'Edict of Time Inviolability' Wizardry cannot alter the passage of time, nor can it affect or see anything in the past or future. Law of Balance The four humors of the human body, phlegm, blood, bile, and black bile (which reflect the cold and moist, hot and moist, hot and dry, and cold and dry aspects of the body respectively), must remain in balance to maintain good health. An excess or deficiency of any single humor may invite poor health or possession by a foreign spirit. 'Law of Creation and Alteration' Wizardry cannot create or alter anything permanently without the supplying of constant magic force. 'Law of the inviolability of Aman and the Heavenly Spheres' Wizardry cannot affect beyond Arda that including the sun and lunar spheres or the blessed lands beyond the West. 'Law of Names' Knowing the true name of a phenomenon or entity gives you a certain control over it. A subset of this law, the Law of Words, expands this concept to include those words which are able to change and influence particular inanimate objects, plants, and places. 'Law of Nature' The behavior or natural creatures, objects, or phenomena will persist according to their inherent temperament without the direct influence of subverting magics. The Law is important because it applies even if the natural form was conjured or summoned with magic (e.g., flames will burn and wolves will hunt and eat, each according to their own nature, even if they are magically summoned, and these effects will persist after the magic that created them subsides). Law of Sympathy That which seems alike, is alike. 'Limit of Imperfect Senses' Non spirit senses (i.e., sight, taste, touch, smell, hearing) are only capable of revealing part of true reality. Although it may be possible to extend and modify these senses with wizardry, they are still ultimately bound by these constraints and remain imperfect. 'Limit of the Soul' It is impossible to affect an immortal soul with magic (e.g., influencing someone's soul after death, creating true human life, or resurrecting the dead). 'The Forms and Arts ' may be bought by the experience points allocation , depending of the art and form and the gender of the gifted, the cost would be a normal skill advancementes or at the cost of weapons skill advancementes 'Cost to buy the Forms and Arts.' No starting hero may raise a Form or Art over 3 dots. Weawing Magic 'To cast a spell.' Magic in middle earth is a narrative art, its not possible to typify every magic or spell bound on its story, as they are not formulaes bound oon stone but a free form flowing art that encompasses the misteries of Arda, on game terms means that there are no list of spells but Forms and Arts. A magician sets the intent of his her spell and combines the Forms with the Arts to find the needed results with the Loremaster aproval 'Concept and Desire' This is the force that shapes the magic of the sorcerer, without it could not be spell . A mage must define the intent "I wish to blast the area with a powerful light", "I want to whisper words of courage to make my horse ride faster" Execution After stating her desire, the magician finds the final target number with the Loremaster, after that checks the forms and arts involved on her spell, the simple the better for the final TN number. Roll the lowest needed form related skill adding to the dice roll the lowest form involved vs the TN of the spell, each aditional form and technique increases the resulting TN in 2. Extra successes means that the effect could be allocated towards the effect, duration, potency or area , if the TN fails, a Failed Casting happens. Any mage could use a HOPE point to add the HEART score. The Words of Power of a spell determine the length required to speak the spell, A character wits determines how many WORDS can speak on a single turn by the SUM of her WITS plus WISDOM plus the DOTS involved in the FORM 'Tax' Once the spell is cast succesfully or not , the actual TN of the spell is the test against the magician's Heart {C}If succesful the magician only loses the TN-wits on endurance, if failed the magician loses the TN in endurance, if failed with a sauron on the Fate die , the caster is authomatically WEARY and must succed a CORRUPTION check vs the TN of the spell.. 'Dark Sorcery' Some arts call upon the energy of the Void, where Sauron and other lesser Sorcerers tap the hateful energies enemy of those who are pure and free. When a magician learns and studies the arts of the Enemy, it puts her own soul to risk , not even the wise Istari are safe from such corruption, because in the end nothing good may come from its use. For each dot on Curse or Destroy, the Magician increases his Shadow score by one permanent point, aditionally each time that one of such spells is cast, no Hope point may be used to bolster its result and requires inmediatly a corruption check (TN 14+dots in the involved art) to win as many temporary Shadow points as the involved art dots the caster has. 'The Natural Order of things' Magic is subtle and not a common ocurrence for everyday actions, using magic all the time breaks the natural order of the Song, a Loremaster could decree a corruption check if he thinks the player is abusing this natural order. 'Damage and Atributes' 'Damage' The basic damage of any spell is 5 edge a Gandalf, and TN to injury 12, each additional tengwa rune, increases the damage, edge and tn in one category to a maximum of a great success 'Affecting attributes.' Any spell cast with intentions to bolster or hamper a target, will , if successfully cast modify the Fate Die in the Wisdom of the magician, for each Tengwar Rune (6), one dice will be add or removed on the Target actions until the spell duration expires. 'The winds of magic' After concept and desire has been set the Loremaster assigns at the end a modier to the final TN , this would hinder the caster the further the magical effect is from the narrative and feeling of the works of JRR Tolkien. Example: Casting light from a staff in a very tolkienesque way would be worth a very small TN of +2, while wishing to fly would be a +40 :D '' 'Casting the spell' Usually wording the magic, requires a clear voice and repeating words of power, these powers bring and shape the sorrounding with the will of the magician. 'The Forms' The Forms are the essentially natural phenomena that one can manipulate with magic. They represent the target of the magic or what one performs magic to or with. 'The Arts' The Arts govern the essential manipulations that magic can perform. Basically, they are what one does with magic. 'Area' Natural effect, could encompass a very large area if a lake or a mountain is involved, aditional increases on TN could reflex that scope. 'Duration' Duration is the expected lasting time of the enchanment, the difference between an event and scene is totally up the loremaster, but usually an Event would be used for a maximum of 1 day, a Scene would involve a whole jouney inside one unit of storytelling. 'Origin' Origin is the point where the effect starts its effect. Putting all in together 'The Escape of Luthien Tinuviel' ''Wishing to help her beloved Luthien's purpose is betrayed to Thingol by Daeron, results in her being apprehended by her father. Thingol, seeking to restrain Luthien from aiding Beren, imprisons her in a wooden house high in the branches of the great beech treee. Luthien -by her arts of enchantment- causes her hair to grow at great length and weaves a web of darkness from it that wrapped her beauty like a shadow. Luthien determines her to use her hair to weave a web of darkness around her, using her Body and Soul (TN+2) plus her Light and Shadows (TN+3) Arts, with the Forms Trasmutation (TN+4) for the hair growing and her Alter (for quenching the light around her) (TN+2) , for a self target (0) that last the whole scene (+3) the loremaster adds 8 to the starting TN and the total worsens s 4 due the prerequisite fact it requires prerequisite arts and forms giving a net total of TN 21 for an enchanted cloak of shadows made from her hair that will last the whole scene. Luthien will have to use her lower score Sorcery skill between Light and Shadows , Body and Soul and only add the worst number between Alter or Trasmutation to beat a score of 24. A very nasty number to beat even with the 9 on her Wits attribute of the maiden. With the remaining hair she decides to wove a rope, Arts Bodny and Mind (TN+2 (self) ), Trasmutation (TN+4) for the duration of the whole climb down ( encounter TN+2), the Target Number after the Loremaster sets a starting TN of 8 is 16, an easy target number for the daughter of Melian with it crafted, she decides to put her guards to sleep (Mind and Body 3, Alter 1, origin Aura 2, area Aura 2, duration Instant, TN 19) , and then used it to climb down from the wooden house and escape from her imprisonment. 'Out Of The Frying-Pan Into The Fire' After fleeing from the Goblin caves, Gandalf the thirteen dwarves and Bilbo reach a clearing in the forest, and while they are thinking of leaving as soon as possible, they are unable to. They hear wolves howling and converging into the clearing, and Gandalf instructs everyone to climb up the trees. Soon the clearing is full of hundreds of wolves, and the trees of the Dwarves, Gandalf and Bilbo are guarded. Gandalf hears the horrible plan of the Wolves, to raid and plunder with the Goblins the villages of the Men living at the edge of the Forest. He also learns that the Wolves do not intend to leave the group on the trees, as they think they are spies from the men of the village. Gandalf decides to tackle things, and using his magical powers creates small “missiles” out of pine-cones and sets fire to the Wargs, and create a large amount of chaos. Gandalf decides to use the pinecone the Loremasters give a base TN 8, he adds as Art Alter (TN 4) and Form of Herbam and Heat and Flame (TN+2 +2 ) over the on a Personal Range (+2), with an aura area (+2) to throw them , the TN for each pinecone of fire such created is a TN 18 and needs 16 words, when they hit an area of fire will engulf three times the Wisdom of the Istari . CULTURAL MAGIC Some people have been taught long-remembered fragments of old spells that retain power to this day, this cultural magic is indeed powerful but, costs hope to use, they are traditional secrets and abilities each culture has learnt and they are strictly for them. Cultural magic don't requires any of the above trappings , each one having their own rules 'Magic of the Noldo' *Song of lament and hope. Use a hope point, roll a Song against TN 14, On a successful roll, you decide its effect, removes your enemies Hate points up your wisdom, or add your wisdom in endurance points to any ally, great success you remove twice your wisdom or affect two allies, great success, you remove three times your wisdom worth of hate or affect three allies. *Endurance from the past ages. Use a hope point, roll a Song against TN 14, On a sucessful roll, you add your Valor score to your endurance, twice your Valor if was a great success or three if the roll was a extraordinary success. *Hymn of the Sword: Use a hope point, at the startof a fight, roll Song against TN 14. On a successful roll, you add one of the following adjectives to your weapon Keen, Grieving or Fell , two if the roll was a great success or three if the roll was a extraordinary success for the duration of the battle. *The gift of speed, roll a song TN 14, whispering to the ear of your horse, you make him to run faster and true for the duration of the encounter. Aditional success increases the speed of the mount. *Supplication to the winds and the waters, use a hope point, roll song against TN variable (minimum 14), you suplicate to the winds and storms and waters to rage or smooth their natural course. *Inner fllame of the first borns, Use a hope point, roll a song TN 16, for all the shadow creatures your aura burns bright casting fear to their heart. No enemy can use hate points on you until they make a Hate roll , their TN is increased by 2 for a great success and 4 for a extraordinary success. *Eyes that see in both worlds 'Magic of the Avari' *Stinging Arrow Spend a point of Hope when you let loose an arrow and it will fly up to twice its normal range, OR spend a point of Hope after a successful ranged attack using a bow or great bow to produce an automatic Piercing blow *Song of lament and hope. Use a hope point, roll a Song against TN 14, On a successful roll, you decide its effect, removes your enemies Hate points up your wisdom, or add your wisdom in endurance points to any ally, great success you remove twice your wisdom or affect two allies, great success, you remove three times your wisdom worth of hate or affect three allies. *The gift of speed, roll a song TN 14, whispering to the ear of your horse, you make him to run faster and true for the duration of the encounter. Aditional success increases the speed of the mount. *Elf lights Spend a point of Hope to light a torch, or a lamp. Any speaking creature who sees its flame must try to get near it by any means possible, or spend a point of Hope (or Hate) to ignore the spell effect You may snuff out the light at will, even from a distance, either to extinguish the flame quickly and quietly, or to cause it to flare suddenly to blind and confuse your enemies (those standing close to the flare are fight as if Weary for one round of combat). *Sleeping elf lights (requires elf lights) You may snuff out the elf-light when someone enters the area illuminated by the light. The first living creature with an Attribute level lower than 6 that enters the area drops immediately in an enchanted sleep *Eyes that see in both worlds 'Magic of the Dwarves' *Rune of closeness *Rune of secrecy *Rune of Crafting 'Magic from the Old Folk' *Song of Stauchnies, At the end of a fight, if you have been Wounded, you may roll Song against TN 14. On a successful roll, you recover a number of additional Endurance points equal to your Wisdom rating, twice your Wisdom rating if the roll was a great success, or three times your Wisdom rating if the roll was an extraordinary success. Additionally, your injury is considered to havebeen treated successfully You may spend a point of Hope to do the samefor another member of your Company. *Second Sight *Enthralling Song Category:Magic Category:Rules Category:Character Category:Character Creation